July 31, 2008

MEGAN MCARDLE: “Why aren’t there hordes of economists studying meaningful alternatives to market capitalism? Because we’ve been experimenting with various other systems–both localism and extreme centralization–for over a century, and the experiment produces the same damn result every single time: human lives that are nasty, brutish, and short. . . . The idea that Chicago should scuttle the Milton Friedman Institute because it makes other professors unpopular with economic illiterates is shameful, and moreover, something that I presume few of these ‘scholars’ would tolerate if the ignorant were targeting their own fields. That this should be coming out of a university with Chicago’s reputation for intellectual rigor is mortifying.”